Publisher Description

Using examples from architecture, film, literature, and the visual arts, this wide-ranging book examines the significance of New York City in the urban imaginary between 1890 and 1940. In particular, Imagining New York City considers how and why certain city spaces-such as the skyline, the sidewalk, the slum, and the subway-have come to emblematize key aspects of the modern urban condition. In so doing, Christoph Lindner also considers the ways in whichcultural developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries set the stage for more recent responses to a variety of urban challenges facing the city, such as post-disaster recovery, the renewal ofurban infrastructure, and the remaking of public space.

Author Biography

Christoph Lindner is Professor of Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsIntroductionArchive CityChanging New YorkModern City, Urban ImaginarySkylines and SidewalksAfter CityPart 1 - SkylinesNew York VerticalThe City from AboveRequiem for the Twin TowersBuilding the Skyline: A Brief Architectural HistoryText and the CityNew York DreamscapesFantasy IslandAfter-Images of New YorkRevisioning the SkyscraperCinema and the Vertical CityThe City from Greenwich VillageMetrotopiaThe Empty CityNew York UndeadPart 2 - SidewalksNew York HorizontalSidewalks and Public SpaceA Short History of the GridStreet-WalkingBroadway PromenadeManhattan FlanêuseBlasé Metropolitan AttitudeCity of SlumsSidewalks and FearTales of the TenementNew York UndergroundElevated CityHigh Line, LowlineSubway CityUnderground FantasiesSlow StreetAfterwordBibliography

Review

"This wonderfully rich and engaging book focuses on a transformative period in New York City's history to explore how and why it has so thoroughly captured modern urban imaginations."--David Pinder, author of Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century Urbanism"An exciting and compelling book, Imagining New York City provides a major contribution to the study of cultural Modernism and urban visual culture. With a richly drawn narrative and a deft interweaving of texts and images, this is clearly a first class writer at work."--Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at The New School and President of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History"Drawing on a rich array of literary, visual, and urbanistic materials, Christoph Lindner offers an intellectually playful, theoretically incisive guide to the cultural history of modern New York. Taking us up skylines and down sidewalks, Lindner makes it clear that imagining New York has been a crucial way of understanding urban modernity."--David Scobey, author of Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape

Promotional

Presents an impressive argument about how New York from 1890 to 1940 related to and informed popular understandings of urbanite spaces

Long Description

Using examples from architecture, film, literature, and the visual arts, this wide-ranging book examines the significance of New York City in the urban imaginary between 1890 and 1940. In particular, Imagining New York City considers how and why certain city spaces-such as the skyline, the sidewalk, the slum, and the subway-have come to emblematize key aspects of the modern urban condition. In so doing, Christoph Lindner also considers the ways in which
cultural developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries set the stage for more recent responses to a variety of urban challenges facing the city, such as post-disaster recovery, the renewal of
urban infrastructure, and the remaking of public space.

Review Text

"This wonderfully rich and engaging book focuses on a transformative period in New York City's history to explore how and why it has so thoroughly captured modern urban imaginations."
--David Pinder, author of Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century Urbanism
"An exciting and compelling book, Imagining New York City provides a major contribution to the study of cultural Modernism and urban visual culture. With a richly drawn narrative and a deft interweaving of texts and images, this is clearly a first class writer at work."
--Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at The New School and President of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History
"Drawing on a rich array of literary, visual, and urbanistic materials, Christoph Lindner offers an intellectually playful, theoretically incisive guide to the cultural history of modern New York. Taking us up skylines and down sidewalks, Lindner makes it clear that imagining New York has been a crucial way of understanding urban modernity."
--David Scobey, author of Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape

Review Quote

"This wonderfully rich and engaging book focuses on a transformative period in New York City's history to explore how and why it has so thoroughly captured modern urban imaginations." --David Pinder, author of Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century Urbanism "An exciting and compelling book, Imagining New York City provides a major contribution to the study of cultural Modernism and urban visual culture. With a richly drawn narrative and a deft interweaving of texts and images, this is clearly a first class writer at work." --Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at The New School and President of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History "Drawing on a rich array of literary, visual, and urbanistic materials, Christoph Lindner offers an intellectually playful, theoretically incisive guide to the cultural history of modern New York. Taking us up skylines and down sidewalks, Lindner makes it clear that imagining New York has been a crucial way of understanding urban modernity." --David Scobey, author of Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape

Feature

Relevant conferences/academic organizations: MLA, SCMS, CAA, Screen
Relevant journals: Journal of American Studies, American Quarterly, PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, American Literature, Cinema Journal, ALH, Film History, Film Comment, Cineaste, Bookforum
Selling point: Presents an impressive interdisciplinary argument about how New York from 1890 to 1940 related to and informed popular understandings of urban spaces.
Selling point: Draws on examples and archival material from across the fields of literature, architecture, visual art, cinema, and urban planning and design.
Selling point: Makes connections between modern New York and both the city's colonial/pre-modern roots and its global future.

Details